Francisco Javier Aparicio is assistant professor in the Political Studies Division at CIDE, in Mexico City. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University. His main areas of expertise are political economy and quantitative methods. Some of his recent research topics include: political competition and public policy, gender and politics, and the political economy of migration–mostly using quantitative methods. His recent publications have appeared in Public Choice, World Development,Latin American Politics & Society,Studies in Comparative International Development, and Política y Gobierno, as well as in the collective volumes Policymaking in Latin America: How politics shapes policies, Debatiendo la Reforma Política, and Perspectivas Migratorias. Every week, he writes in Excélsior and tweets as @javieraparicio.Curriculum Vitae (pdf) / Google Scholar Citations / ORCID

Some basic Q&A / Preguntas frecuentes{This is from 2009, when some people used to ask these questions… Aunque sea irrelevante, no lo borro por nostalgia, supongo.}

1. ¿Why do you waste your time with a blog that no one will read or comment on?This blog is more like a personal notebook than a “discussion board”. Here, I collect papers and references that I find interesting, and draft random thoughts that I may develop later on. I also use it to (shamelessly) promote my own work on the web.

2. ¿Por qué (tantas entradas) en inglés?It is a bit akward for me to comment in Spanish whatever is being debated in English in the web (and English is the default language for most academic production). Por otro lado, algunos comentarios sobre “México” tienen una mejor difusión en la blogósfera en español, y así aparecerán. I also like to practice my writing skills in both languages. Finally, and most importantly, it’s my blog so, ¿qué se le va a hacer?

3. ¿Why the “Public Economics” title if you mostly post about political economy or politics plain and simple?I always wanted to use “Political Economy” as the title of my blog but somebody else got it first (somebody always does, and then never uses it!) “Public economics” studies collective decision-making, the role of the public sector in the economy, the reasons and extent of government intervention, and the response of private agents to the government’s actions–it’s a broad enough term to fit my purposes, yet keeps the focus on policy and policymaking. Oh, and if you see a lot of electoral stuff around here it is because voters (sometimes) matter too. También es un juego de palabras: léase la relación entre la economía y “el público”, o bien la difusión de ideas económicas entre “el público”.

4. ¿But why __________(fill in your own question here)__________?Probably because it’s low cost and… well, it is just a blog.

By the way, here you can find the picture I use in the header of my blog. And here is the one I used before.